Car shopping advice

Aside from a home, a car is the most expensive and complicated purchases a consumer can make. In this list of stories, we cover everything from whether its better to lease or finance your vehicle to how to maximize your test drive and minimize buyer remorse.

As bricks-and-mortar stores around the country close up and more retail sales shift to the internet, the auto industry seems stuck in the past, plodding along in much the same way that it has for decades. If you want to buy a new vehicle, you still have to schlep to a dealer, negotiate a price...

The number of new vehicles that were leased hit a record 4.4 million last year, triple the number in 2009, when auto sales were at their low point during the recession. New- and used-car sales have increased seven years in a row as the economy has improved, a streak not seen since the 1920s, but...

If you do your homework, now is the time to practically steal a new sedan from your car dealer. For more than a year, sales of cars have been tanking because Americans have gone nuts over SUVs and trucks. As stockpiles of sedans such as the Chevrolet Malibu and Chrysler 200 stretch across car lots,...

Car insurance can be tricky to navigate, and it's easy for consumers to get lured in by aggressive marketing by some companies advertising low rates. "While there might be commercials for companies advertising $29 a month for insurance, the bottom line is that each policy has a different price,...

All those years of rising U.S. auto sales are starting to work against carmakers. A glut of used vehicles has started to depress prices. That trend will intensify as Americans will return 3.36 million leased cars and trucks this year, another jump after a 33 percent surge in 2016, according to...

When shopping for a low-priced used car, three things will become evident: Some people want to swindle you. Few take proper care of their cars. The search will take a long time. Last summer, I set out to help my future son-in-law find transportation to his new teaching job near Kalamazoo, Michigan....

Americans don't agree on much these days, but this seems to be one of them: They hate car-shopping. The haggling, the financing, the lack of transparency. It's enough to make anybody go nuts, Harvard Business School professor Ryan W. Buell says. "It's like getting on a steep emotional roller coaster:...

That chill in the air signals not only the onset of autumn but also cooling auto sales. For bargain hunters, this could be a great time to get a good deal on a new car. But sales downturns aren't the only time to buy a new car. New model rollouts, carmakers' redesign schedules and other events...

If you're thinking of using your long Memorial Day weekend to shop for a used car, that time might be better spent barbecuing. According to automotive research website iSeeCars.com, Memorial Day is one of the worst days of the year to get a deal on a car. In fact, it appears you may as well just...

After a year of record new-vehicle sales, automakers, dealers and the banks and finance companies that issue car loans are jubilantly exchanging high-fives. Analysts list several reasons for record sales of 17.5 million vehicles in 2015, including an improving economy and job market, low interest...